FreeBSD takes security very seriously and its developers are constantly working on making the operating system as secure as possible. This page will provide information about what to do in the event of a security vulnerability affecting your system, and how to report vulnerabilities.
A full list of all security vulnerabilities can be found on this page.
For most users, the easiest way to update your supported &os; &rel.current; or &rel2.current; system is to use the following commands:
# freebsd-update fetchIf that fails, follow the other instructions in the security advisory you care about.
The current designation and estimated lifetimes of the currently supported branches are given below. The Estimated EoL (end-of-life) column gives the earliest date on which that branch is likely to be dropped. Please note that these dates may be extended into the future, but only extenuating circumstances would lead to a branch's support being dropped earlier than the date listed.
| Branch | Release | Type | Release Date | Estimated EoL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stable/8 | n/a | n/a | n/a | June 30, 2015 |
| releng/8.4 | 8.4-RELEASE | Extended | June 9, 2013 | June 30, 2015 |
| stable/9 | n/a | n/a | n/a | last release + 2 years |
| releng/9.1 | 9.1-RELEASE | Extended | December 30, 2012 | December 31, 2014 |
| releng/9.2 | 9.2-RELEASE | Normal | September 30, 2013 | September 30, 2014 |
| stable/10 | n/a | n/a | n/a | last release + 2 years |
| releng/10.0 | 10.0-RELEASE | Normal | January 20, 2014 | January 31, 2015 |
Older releases are not maintained and users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to one of the supported releases mentioned above. A list of unsupported releases can be found here.
Advisories are sent to the following FreeBSD mailing lists:
The list of released advisories can be found on the FreeBSD Security Advisories page.
Advisories are always signed using the FreeBSD Security Officer PGP key and are archived, along with their associated patches, at the http://security.FreeBSD.org/ web server in the advisories and patches subdirectories.
The FreeBSD Security Officer provides security advisories for -STABLE Branches and the Security Branches. (Advisories are not issued for the -CURRENT Branch.)
The -STABLE branch tags have names like stable/9. The corresponding builds have names like FreeBSD 9.2-STABLE.
Each FreeBSD Release has an associated Security Branch. The Security Branch tags have names like releng/9.2. The corresponding builds have names like FreeBSD 9.2-RELEASE-p1.
Issues affecting the FreeBSD Ports Collection are covered in the FreeBSD VuXML document.
Each branch is supported by the Security Officer for a limited time only, and is designated as one of `Early adopter', `Normal', or `Extended'. The designation is used as a guideline for determining the lifetime of the branch as follows.